Kenny Chesney revealed the moment that sparked a “fire” in his soul and sent him on his path to career success.
Chesney, 57, will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October – cementing his status as a country music legend. Despite all the accolades, the “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” singer is still humble.
“I promise you, I did not see this coming,” he said at the public announcement, People magazine reported.
The singer-songwriter opened up about a childhood memory that changed his future. “I went with my mom and my stepfather to a field about 10 miles from my house to see this group, Alabama, that was going to play,” he said. “I couldn’t believe they were going to play just right down the road from my house … Something happened to me that night. There was a fire lit. Something happened in my soul that set me on this path.”
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Kenny Chesney revealed the childhood moment that led him to begin his country music career. (Getty Images)
“If you’d have told that kid that night … that this [the Hall of Fame] was going to happen, I would’ve told you that you were crazy.”
Chesney said he never dreamed he’d achieve hall of fame status.
“That’s just something you don’t dare to imagine,” Chesney said in a press release shared with Fox News Digital. “I would never have even thought about being here, because it’s almost too much. Just walking past so many of these bronzes, realizing how many are friends or whose music I’ve listened to my whole life, this is an honor that extends beyond anything my heart would dare think.”
Kenney Chesney has released 20 studio albums throughout his career. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for CMT)
The “Big Star” singer explained the “beauty” of country music is “that even though it tells some pretty strong truth, country music runs on dreams.”
“For me, this is beyond a dream. I keep thinking I’m gonna wake up on my couch back at [East Tennessee State University]. But standing here, this is more than real, it’s surreal. I couldn’t be more thankful or humble.”
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Chesney got serious about his music career while attending East Tennessee State University. While enrolled in classes, the country music star joined a college band and played at local bars.
He later became a songwriter, signing a publishing deal with Opryland Music Group in 1992. Chesney signed his first record deal with Capricorn Records the following year.
Chesney released his first album, “In My Wildest Dreams,” in 1994 before signing with BNA Records.
Kenny Chesney began singing in local bars while attending East Tennessee State University. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
The “American Kids” singer went on to release 20 studio albums in total, earned four CMA Entertainer of the Year awards and hit the top of the charts with 23 singles. Chesney eventually signed with Warner Music Nashville in 2018 and released his most recent album, “Born,” on March 22, 2024.
Now, Chesney joins Alabama, Chet Atkins, Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris, Loretta Lynn and more in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Each election class is voted on by the Country Music Association.
The first members, Jimmie Rodgers, Fred Rose and Hank Williams, were inducted in 1961.
Kenny Chesney will be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October. (Francis Specker)
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Chesney opened up about what changed his career in a 2023 interview at Country Radio Seminar. The musician admitted he was trying to be the next George Strait when he was first starting out.
“I was a lot like a lot of artists, honestly,” he recalled, via Billboard. “I was trying to be the newer version of George Strait. I think Garth [Brooks] would tell you the same thing: He loved George. That was the bar. I wore a belt buckle. I was trying to be that.”
Kenny Chesney and George Strait pose during the rehearsals for the 43rd Academy of Country Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 17, 2008. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“Everybody knew the songs, but they didn’t know me,” Chesney explained. “I had 16 songs in a Greatest Hits package, and then I would go play a fair or whatever and people would go, ‘Oh, that’s the guy that sings that song. Oh, he sings that, too.’ So they hadn’t really connected yet. But the moment I stopped trying to be George Strait, that was the moment my life changed. I started really writing songs. And my life in the Virgin Islands, I spent a lot of time writing out there.”
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Chesney’s private estate on St. John was also the location of his wedding to actress Renée Zellweger. The two met in January 2005 at NBC’s Concert of Hope and married in May of that year.
Renée Zellweger and Kenny Chesney are seen together on May 18, 2005, in Las Vegas. (BG032/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
After four short months, Zellweger filed for an annulment and cited “fraud.” Speculation was quick to follow, and the two were forced to release statements on their short-lived time together.
Zellweger first clarified that the term “fraud” was “simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny’s character.”
They later released a joint statement through their representatives: “The miscommunication of the objective of their marriage at the start is the only reason for this annulment. Renée and Kenny value and respect each other and are saddened that their different objectives prevent the success of this marriage.”
Now, 20 years later, Zellweger is dating British TV star Ant Anstead, while Chesney has kept his romantic life private.
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